The 2017 committee is starting work on selecting titles for the longlist for these prestigious awards, now in their sixth year. Since 2015, the shortlist announcements are being made in October (for books published during that calendar year) and winner announcements in January at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The celebratory event continues to be held at ALA Annual Conference each June.

The 2017 committee includes the following experts who work closely with adult readers.

Jazz Jennings, one of the youngest and most prominent voices in the national discussion about gender identity, will be a 2016 ALA Annual Conference Auditorium Speaker on Monday, June 27, 8:30-9:30 am. At the age of five and with the support of her parents, Jennings transitioned to life as a girl. A year later, her first Barbara Walters interview aired, at a time when the public was much less knowledgeable about or accepting of the transgender community.

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The Intellectual Freedom Round Table has announced the winner of the 2016 Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award, which recognizes the best published work in the area of intellectual freedom. The 2016 award goes to The Library Juice Press Handbook of Intellectual Freedom, edited by Mark Alfino and Laura Koltutsky. The publisher is the Library Juice Press.

Award-winning actress and New York Times bestselling children’s author Jamie Lee Curtis will close out the 2016 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition in Orlando after current ALA President Sari Feldman passes the gavel to the 2016-2017 ALA President Julie Todaro and introduces the new ALA Division Presidents. The Closing General Session will take place 9:30-11:00am on Tuesday, June 28th.

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During the entire month of March, the American Library Association's (ALA) Committee on the Status of Women in Librarianship (COSWL) will recognize and celebrate women’s historic achievements with National Women’s History Month. This year the Committee will be profiling four women who are leaders in technology every Wednesday in March. Visit COSWL’s Facebook page or check us out on Twitter at @ALA_COSWL.

CHICAGO – Libraries have a direct and immediate stake in the outcome of the Apple case, as patrons have 24/7 access to library materials and resources via their smart phones, tablets and mobile devices. Sari Feldman, president of the American Library Association (ALA) released the following statement in response to a federal court order that requires Apple to develop a new tool to eliminate specific security protections the company built into its phone software, in order to assist the Federal Bureau of Investigation in unlocking encrypted messages.

Nonfiction, suspense novels for adults, children’s books, comic books, TV shows, and 2016 Honorary Chair of ALA’s Preservation Week—the multi-talented New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer does them all and more. A core belief underpins and runs through each of his projects: ordinary people change the world. Hear him talk about that and more as an Auditorium Speaker on June 26th, 10:30-11:30am at the 2016 ALA Annual Conference.

Washington, D.C. – President Obama announced today his intent to nominate Dr. Carla Hayden, a former president of the American Library Association (ALA) and the current Chief Executive Officer of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland as the 14th Librarian of Congress. Commenting on the announcement, ALA President Sari Feldman said: